bighed

One of my bigger wrong kind catches from Falcon a few years ago. Flipped a jig into a bush and got the thump of a lifetime. For scale, I'm about 6-3 and 330

The old Berkley Bionix I mentioned for instance. It was and still is a very light and sensitive rod. It was a leap of faith for me to lay down $50 at Walmart to buy it in those days. However, it's 6' length and one rod for every presentation design causes it to not be that great at anything relative to todays technique specific rods.

No doubt in my mind that the bass do not hug as tightly to a dock on a cloudy day as a sunny one. Also, for me, dock fishing is something that I don't start doing until the sun is high. The later in the day the more bass will load up in the shade of a dock

for your retired rods? I've got some of my dad's old rods and some of mine that were retired as technology changed. Rods that caught tons of fish that I just can't let go of. The rods dad taught me how to fish with, the Speed Stik and 5000C I got for my 13th birthday, an old Bionix and Bantam reel that was my dream combo in the mid 80's, etc. I'm fixing up the study in my house and am planning to display these old rods along with photos from back in the day. Anybody else have anything like that?

The comorants are pretty easily spooked where I fish. They do not hang around when a boat approaches so it's a little hard to say if their presence affects the bite. It does seem that a bass will bite as soon as the bird is run off by an approaching angler so I would say the fish are not leaving the area.

Wow dude, that would have taken me three days to formulate and write! As far as birds of prey, bass in this area will rarely encounter an eagle or osprey. They do however encounter comorants constantly and overhead cover does little to protect them from these birds. The tell tail V mark on the backs of bass have become so prevalant it's very rare that a trip to the lake doesn't produce a fish with that scare. However, the bass still do relate to docks I believe for the reasons you explained.

Not to discourage you from bass fishing but why not jump on a party boat at SPI and go get some snapper or??? It's close by you and doesn't cost too much and the boat provides the tackle. Choke Canyon is the best choice down your way if Falcon is excluded. Not sure how low it is but most of the state has been drying up for the last several years. Falcon has been fishing better recently and should be your number 1 choice if bass is what you have to have. Good Luck!

I fished Texoma Sunday and Monday and had water temps of 73-78 degrees. The fishing was pretty tough overall but had a little storm blow thru yesterday morning that turned them on. Got a limit in about an hour and a half. All that is to say the fall bite has not really started in earnest on Texoma yet.

I'm pretty open to sharing a backseat with a stranger when I'm out prefishing. I prefer that angler would respond to a post on a local forum offering a ride for a share of fuel costs rather than hit me up at the ramp.

Excited to hear the details!

In my experience any time you have two types of cover your golden. Especially if there is structure. Are there pads and wood together? Fish that first, especially in areas where there may be a bottom contour change. The wind will also tend to position the fish on edges that the wind blows into. So if you have a little drop off that are lined by pads and have some wood mixed in that the wind is blowing into you have a good spot to try. As always, this is JMHO. Good luck and above all else, keep it fun!

As the title says, anybody going to the BASS National in Louisiana?

For what it's worth, my 20yo son works in the fishing dept at Cabelas in Allen, TX. I'd put his knowledge up against anyones and say without a doubt that he knows more about fishing (and the outdoors) than 99% of the folks that walk in the door. He has tournament fished for a decade, caught smallmouth and northerns from a canoe in MN and DD largemouth from a 100 mph bass boat at Falcon, caught yellowfin tuna at the floaters in the Gulf, trout and redfish wading the Chandeleurs, Peacocks on the fly in the canals of Dade County, Brook/Brown/Cutthroat/Rainbow trout in the Gold Medal Streams of Colorado, and on and on and on. I know all this because I was fishing with him when he did it. He works hard for $10 an hour, no benefits, and no commission on anything so doesn't push product on anybody. I've met and fished with some of his co workers and they are not bad either. I've said this not to brag but to say that you can't paint all of these sales folks with one wide brush and say they all s##k because it's simply not true.

I hear ya on the grind. I put on small tournaments on Mondays for guys like me who are off during the week. We fished Ray Roberts last Monday which has nice hydrilla, rock, and timber which usually produce 14-16# winning sacks. This was a team tourney but my partner was out so I started off at a disadvantage fishing alone. Wind was out of the east all day and the bite was non existant but I kept up the grind. Finally got one keeper an hour from weigh in that weighed 1.40# and thought about dumping it before I headed in. Only one other team of the six we had weighed a fish and it was 1.42#. Missed a decent pay out by .02#!

KVD will be at the Classic and should be more available to his fans than usual.

It's been a long couple of seasons for me since I won a club tourney. Well, it happened last weekend and was very unexpected. Back seated with another angler in a draw club and caught a small limit. There are lots of GREAT sticks in this club and about 30 anglers fishing so I was sure my sack would be middle of the field best case. Turns out it was a tough day and I won by a couple pounds. Have you ever had one of these wins when you just knew it was not your day?

Ive put a few in the live well and by weigh in they were fine as far as I could tell

Interesting stuff guys. Thanks for taking the time to comment. I guess I'm in the "extension of my body" group since I have aways used the foot controls. I look forward to trying the new technology soon!

Starting this thread as an attempt to not turn an aluminum boat conversation into a trolling motor conversation. It was suggested by a couple guys here that I respect, that the Terrova Ipilot was a step up in technology that gives an angler an edge over the old foot and hand control tm's we all have used. I'm a believer that once an angler closes his mind to new ideas, he's limited his growth in the sport. That said, can someone tell me the advantages of this new technology and their experiences with it? What can and can't it do? How's the reliability, etc?

I'd love to try one but understand they are not effective in our timber filled lakes

I guess if beating the banks is what you like to do prob no big deal in an aluminum. Trying to stay on structure in open water on a windy day is a different story. I like doing the tourney thing so I fish whatever the condition, windy or not. Up here its usually windy, 15-20 is normal. I should say that mine was a hand control TM which I don't like and that may have added to my frustration. You won't poke a hole through a glass boat but will scratch them on timber. My pretty new white triton looked pretty bad in two years of bouncing off stumps. It had stickers for graphics on the sides that looked cool till they got tore up too. Kinda po'd me. All that said, the triton had some features I really liked. The 115 Merc 4 stroke would fish for days on $20 of gas. The front deck was huge and so was the storage. It towed easily and was easy to move by hand into my side entry garage. After this boat I moved back to glass boats and do prefer them. I'd say an aluminum boat WOULD be a great starter boat. Inexpensive, cheap to operate, easy to tow, hard to sink. JMHO

I've had a Tracker and a Triton aluminum and both were good boats with many good features. What turned me off to them was how badly the wind pushed these boats around. At times it was nearly impossible to control them. They dented easily when blown into timber as well.

Well, I would have called BS if someone else posted what I'm about to say had I not seen it myself. My son and I went to Falcon about 4 years ago when the fishing was really good. He likes making, painting, modifying his tackle, something I do not do. He took three odd colored DD22's he got in a bargain bin and painted them bass colored before we went down there. Not fancy or realistic but with a green back, bold black stripe, and solid white belly. Those baits out produced, by about 25 fish a day, anything I had including other DD22's fished in the exact same spots, dragging through the same brush. No, he would not give me one. So yes, if a custom paint job imitates forage better than the off the shelf baits, I believe. I don't think it has to be a $25 super realistic bait though.

Shakeyhead is a numbers bait

Looks like it's about to spawn although it's no the time of year for that.